August 23, 2012


Calling on ACMA, NEMOA Members to Host or Participate in Pocket Meetings With Congress this Autumn
 
ACMA and NEMOA are calling on catalogers or catalog suppliers, particularly in the states and congressional jurisdictions listed below, to host or participate in “pocket meetings” with local congressmen or senators this autumn while Congress is on its August recess through Labor Day and then spends much of the fall in their home district campaigning amongst constituencies. We’re looking for these meetings to build relations with legislators while informing them on two matters of great concern to cataloging:

• Postal reform but without mandated rate increases for specific products (i.e. Standard Flats)
   
• Sales and Use Tax to influence members of both sides of the Chamber in either party to vote down the two “Main Street Fairness” bills to overturn the 20-year-old Quill v. North Dakota law that holds remote sellers do not have to collect sales taxes from customers in states where the marketers have no physical presence. 

Postal and Tax committee assignments are listed at the end of this document. Officials on one of these committees are a particular priority. If you happen to reside in a congressional district in which Members serve on both committees, your meeting could address both of these crucial issues. There are three of them: Darrell Issa (CA-49), Dennis Ross (FL-12), and Trey Gowdy (SC-4).

Republican House members are another clear priority. Even though Postal Reform has only a low potential to be brought to a vote in the Republican-controlled House in this legislative session, we must try. If a bill does not pass the House before the end of this Congress, we will have to start again with the new Congress. When meeting with House of Representative members, please urge them to request from House leadership that H.R. 2309 be brought to a floor vote right away to take advantage of a related bill that past the Senate this spring.

If you are willing to host a meeting, your next step is to see if you can invite fellow catalogers or supplier members within your district or state. There is strength in numbers. So please determine whether any other companies are located near you; then invite them to join you during this meeting.

Your Meeting’s Goals

1. Build/deepen a relationship with legislators
    
2. Educate officials about the importance of cataloging to the district/state and on the national economy
    
3. Inform House of Representative members – especially Republicans – of the importance of passing H.R. 2309 before this Congress is finished so it is not necessary to start completely over in both chambers with the next Congress, but the necessity to remove the word “product” in Section 401 of H.R. 2309 which forces up rates for catalogers before passage
    
4. Encourage officials not to support legislative efforts to overturn the Quill precedent as being attempted in the House bill H.R. 3179 or the Senate bill S. 1832 (for background on this, click here). 

ACMA and NEMOA have teamed up to make as aggressive an effort as possible to defend catalogers by building relationships and educating legislators about the impact on cataloging. So if you’re unsure whether you have any such “neighbors” to attend your meeting or have any questions about the nature of these meetings, please contact your respective association reps, Paul Miller of ACMA or Cindy Marshall at NEMOA, and we’ll be happy to help you network locally and provide contacts of other companies in your area you might invite.

Further details on conducting these meetings can be found here.

Committee Assignments and the Relevant Bills under Consideration:
While building a strong relationship with any Member of Congress is very helpful, members on any of the committees listed below are particularly of value.

1. HOUSE: Postal Reform Act (H.R. 2309)
For meetings with Republican members of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform on the Republican-backed H.R. 2309, if your company headquarters, fulfillment center or employees’ homes are concentrated in the following Members’ congressional districts, you are an ideal candidate to host a meeting. These officials need to hear how damaging legislatively mandated rate increases for catalogs will be. The committee members are:

Darrell Issa (CA-49)
Dan Burton (IN-05)
John Mica (FL-07)
Todd Platts (PA-19)
Michael Turner (OH-03)
Patrick McHenry (NC-10)
Jim Jordan (OH-04)
Jason Chaffetz (UT-03)
Connie Mack (FL-14)
Tim Walberg (MI-3)
James Lankford (OK-5)
Justin Amash (MI-3)
Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25)
Paul Gosar (AZ-1)
Raúl Labrador (ID-1)
Pat Meehan (PA-7)
Scott DesJarlais (TN-4)
Joe Walsh (IL-8)
Trey Gowdy (SC-4)
Dennis Ross (FL-12)
Blake Farenthold (TX-27)
Mike Kelly (PA-3)

2. HOUSE: Marketplace Equity Act (H.R. 3179)
For tax-related meetings with the House Committee on the Judiciary, the House committee reviewing H.R 3179, here are those Members and their jurisdictions:

Lamar Smith (TX-21)
Jim Sensenbrenner Jr. (WI-5)
Howard Coble (NC-6)
Elton Gallegly (CA-24)
Bob Goodlatte (VA-6)
Dan Lungren (CA-3)
Steve Chabot (OH-1)
Darrell Issa (CA-49)
Mike Pence (IN-6)
J. Randy Forbes (VA-4)
Steve King (IA-5)
Trent Franks (AZ-2)
Louis Gohmert (TX-1)
Jim Jordan (OH-4)
Ted Poe (TX-2)
Jason Chaffetz (UT-3)
Tim Griffin (AR-2)
Tom Marino (PA-10)
Trey Gowdy (SC-4)
Dennis Ross (FL-12)
Sandy Adams (FL-24)
Ben Quayle (AZ-3)
Mark Amodei (NV-2)
John Conyers Jr. (MI-14)
Howard Berman (CA-28)
Jerrold Nadler (NY-8)
Bobby Scott (VA-3)
Mel Watt (NC-12)
Zoe Lofgren (CA-16)
Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18)
Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Steve Cohen (TN-9)
Hank Johnson (GA-4)
Pedro Pierluisi (Puerto Rico – Resident Commissioner)
Mike Quigley (IL-5)
Judy Chu (CA-32)
Ted Deutch (FL-19)
Linda Sanchez (CA-39)
Jared Polis (CO-2)
 

3. SENATE: Marketplace Fairness Act (S.1832)
Below is a list of senators (and their states) on the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation, which is reviewing S.1832:

John Rockefeller IV (WV)
Daniel Inouye (HI)
John Kerry (MA)
Barbara Boxer (CA)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Maria Cantwell (WA)
Frank Lautenberg (NJ)
Mark Pryor (AR)
Claire McCaskill (MO)
Amy Klobuchar (MN)
Tom Udall (NM)
Mark Warner (VA)
Mark Begich (AK)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
Olympia Snowe (ME)
Jim DeMint (SC)
John Thune (SD)
Roger Wicker (MS)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Roy Blunt (MO)
John Boozman (AK)
Patrick Toomey (PA)
Marco Rubio (FL)
Kelly Ayotte (NH)
Dean Heller (NV)
 
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© 2012 American Catalog Mailers Association, Inc.